Rooms with a View | CCTVImage
It has been in the same room since but this will change very soon. They have also linked in a few cameras in some small villages as a part of the regeneration programme, but the problem with regeneration funding is whilst it covers the capital costs it doesn’t increase revenue, and maintenance/repair charges fall to the CCTV budget.
A team of four shift workers and three reliefs ensure there is one operator on duty. To attract income would require more operators and more cost, so there is no income generation! When the operators go off duty, they hand control over to Merthyr Central Police and South Wales Police HQ with a ‘live’ link.
Sian also manages the 24/7 Lifeline service with 6,000 customers. It is TSA accredited but operates separately to the CCTV although both are located close together in a secure area. The transmission systems are varied, with the original town centre cameras hard wired to the control room. The hospital cameras are connected through microwave while the newest links are via fibre optics.
Despite the financial constraints the system has had a number of upgrades, moving to a Dedicated Micros digital system, and two or three new cameras each year. Another upgrade is due shortly as the Council is trying to bring all CCTV together, from leisure, museums, the castle and visitor centre and move it to a larger room, with flat screens replacing the current monitors. All maintenance is carried out by a local company CD Electrics who has been involved since day one. The work undertaken is varied, working with the PCSOs, the drug teams, British Transport Police, community neighbourhood teams, hous- ing, searching for missing persons, truancy operations, fire and rescue, street pastors, National Crime squad on credit card cloning and the Emergency Planning Department and Trading Standards to name a few. Last year there were 327 positive ‘findings’ reported to the police and 240 incident viewing requests, with the police attending all downloads. We left Sian feeling impressed with what they are doing, and a sys- tem which is well run within the limited funding they have.
Sian Davies has 31 years’ service at Merthyr Tydfil CCTV system Summary
Apart from meeting all these pro-active and highly committed CCTV Managers, seeing all the superb scenery as we travelled through the love- ly countryside as we moved between locations and the lovely weather, what really amazed me overall was the extremely high proportions of the systems visited that had enthusiastically adopted the multi-functional approach to the operation of a CCTV system, achieving the benefits of scale and improving the effectiveness and value for money of the system. My second impression was how little reference was made throughout to ‘budget cuts’, and how many were thinking of future improvements and developments. I wonder whether these two points are inter-related, as the more services a unit takes on, the more recognition and support it would receive from councillors.
Now, I appreciate that the majority of the unitary authori- ties visited have popula- tions well over 100,000, with Rhondda-Cynon-Taff exceed- ing 200,000, much larger than many of the Shire Districts in England. The relative cost of community safety as a propor- tion of their overall budget for education, social services, etc. is relatively small.
There are, however, many examples of additional ser- vices even small authorities could consider, with relative- ly small capital investment, that would introduce income without significant additional staffing costs. Key holding, lone worker monitoring and out-of-hours response are just a few of the options that spring to mind which could possibly help ensure the
survival of
CCTV systems in these strait- ened times.
Spring 2013 22
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